'Cherie Blair' (born
23 September 1954), known professionally as 'Cherie Booth'
QC, is an
English barrister. She is married to
Tony Blair, the former
British Prime Minister.
Early life
Born in
Bury,
Lancashire,
England, her father, the actor
Tony Booth, left her mother when Cherie Booth was eight years old. Booth and her younger sister, Lyndsey, were then raised by their mother Gale and their paternal grandmother Vera Booth, a devout
Roman Catholic. Cherie and her sister both attended Catholic schools in
Crosby in
Merseyside. Cherie Booth attended Seafield Convent Grammar which is now part of
Sacred Heart Catholic College. Booth has six half sisters, including the journalist
Lauren Booth.
She studied law at the
London School of Economics and graduated with a
First Class degree. She later came at the top of her year in the bar exams,
[1] while teaching law at the
University of Westminster. In
1976, while she was studying to become a barrister, she met Tony Blair. She obtained a
pupillage in the chambers of
Derry Irvine ahead of him, although he was also taken on. Married on
29 March 1980, they have four children:
Euan,
Nicky,
Kathryn and
Leo.
Blair unsuccessfully contested the seat of
North Thanet in
Kent at the
1983 UK general election, losing to
Roger Gale, while her husband was selected at the last minute for a safe seat in
Sedgefield in
County Durham in the same election. She was considering standing in 1987, but a cycling accident in which she broke both her arms ended her chances.
Cherie Booth in full Queen's Counsel ceremonial dress.
Legal career
A member of
Lincoln's Inn, she became a
barrister in 1976 and Queen's Counsel in 1995. In 1999, she was appointed a
Recorder (a permanent part-time judge) in the
County Court and
Crown Court. She was Chancellor of
Liverpool John Moores University from 1999-2006, and on
26 July 2006 was awarded the honorary title of Emeritus Chancellor. She is also Governor of the London School of Economics and the
Open University. She is a founding member of
Matrix Chambers in London from which she continues to practise as a barrister. Matrix was formed in 2000 specialising in
human rights law, though members also practise in a range of areas of UK
public and
private law, the
law of the European Union and
European Convention on Human Rights, and
public international law.
[2]
She specializes in
employment, discrimination and public law and in this capacity has occasionally represented claimants taking cases against the UK government.
[3]
Cherie Blair has appeared in a number of leading cases, but has lost more than she has won. A notable example before the
European Court of Justice was concerned with
discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. See ECJ Case C-249/96, ''Lisa Jacqueline Grant'' vs. ''South-West Trains Ltd''.
[1]
Controversies
In
2002, Blair hit the newspaper headlines in the scandal referred to as "Cheriegate" because of her involvement with
Peter Foster, a convicted
Australian
conman, who assisted her with the purchase of two flats in
Bristol. Blair tried to distance herself from Foster and briefed the press office at
Number 10 to go public with a statement claiming that Foster was not involved with the deal. She was caught out when Foster provided evidence that she had lied. She went public herself, tearfully reading a prepared statement blaming her "misfortune" on the pressures of running a family and being a mother. She tried to distance herself from Foster, but it was later revealed that she and Tony Blair had agreed to be godparents to the yet-to-be born child of Foster and his partner Carole Caplin (Caplin later miscarried).
[4]
Her relationship with Peter Foster's then-partner, the so-called "style guru" and former model
Carole Caplin, has given rise to headlines in some newspapers. Caplin is credited with introducing Blair to various
New Age symbols and beliefs, including "magic pendants" known as "BioElectric Shields".
[5] The most controversial of Blair's New Age practices occurred when on holiday in Mexico. She and her husband, wearing only bathing costumes, took part in a rebirthing procedure that involved smearing mud and fruit over each others' bodies while sitting in a steam bath.
[6] It is claimed her fourth pregnancy at 45 came after she submitted to New Age sexual techniques.
[7]
Later in 2002, she apologised after saying, in reference to the
Palestinian suicide bombers, "As long as young people feel they have no hope but to blow themselves up, we're never going to make progress, are we?", within hours of a blast in Jerusalem that killed at least 19 people.
[8][9]
In
2003, after being invited to a
Melbourne shopping centre and told to take a few items for free, she took 68 items. She subsequently paid £2,000 for the goods.
[10]
In
2005, while her husband was visiting
President George Bush officially, she gave a private speech in
Washington's Kennedy Center where she was paid £30,000 for her appearance. She was criticised for leveraging government resources, Britain's ambassador and her husband's transport means to run private business.
[11]
Also in 2005, during a charity speaking tour of Australia, she was paid a £102,000 fee for
after-dinner speaking, although the £82-a-head dinner raised £81,270, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV). £6,690, or 8%, of the total funds raised went towards cancer research.
[12]
Blair acted the case of
Shabina Begum, a student at the mainly-Muslim
Denbigh High School in
Luton, who was refused permission to wear full head-to-toe
jilbab, when the
school uniform code only permitted students to wear the
salwar kameez. For her client Blair claimed that it was about prejudice, however she was criticised for her involvement in the case when Begum was being supported by the controversial Islamist group
Hizb ut-Tahrir, of which the girl's brother Shuweb Rahman was a member.
[13] This criticism ignores the
cab rank rule under which any English barrister is in general required to act for any client, if asked to do so.
Concern was highlighted by ''
The Times'' in 2005, when Blair agreed to defend a UK couple, the Orams, who had been accused of illegally building a villa in the internationally unrecognised
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus[14] President
Tassos Papadopoulos of
Cyprus referred to Blair's decision to represent the Orams as "a provocative action".
[15]
In 2006, the Labour Party paid a £7,700 bill for her personal hair stylist, Andre Suard, during the
2005 General Election campaign, a sum of £275 per day for the month leading up to the election. This angered some in the party, including former minister
Peter Kilfoyle, who claimed the bill was twice what he had spent on his election campaign in the
Liverpool Walton seat.
[16]
In 2006, Blair was granted an audience with the
Pope; Blair drew controversy by
wearing white, instead of the traditional black.
[17]
In the
2006 film
The Queen Blair was portrayed (by actress
Helen McCrory) as giving an unconvincing
curtsey when presented to the Queen. However, this behaviour is shown to secretly amuse the Queen. In addition, Blair is portrayed referring to
Princess Diana as an "airhead," and
Princess Anne as a "bitch."
In May 2006, Cherie Blair signed a copy of the Hutton Report which was later auctioned to raise funds for the Labour Party. The
Hutton Report was a controversial report by
Lord Hutton into the death of
Dr David Kelly, and whether the government had lied over the claims of
Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
[18]
In September 2006, it was reported that Blair had been investigated by the police over an incident at the UK School Games where she, it was claimed, slapped a 17 year old boy, Miles Gandolfi of Chelsfield, Kent, who had asked to have his picture taken with her and then gestured "bunny ears" behind her back. On police investigation it was determined that she did not hit the boy and it was quickly announced that no further police action was planned.
[19]
On 21 January 2007, another controversy arose, when it was alleged that she used her position to acquire thousands of pounds' worth of cut-price designer clothes.
[20]
As Tony Blair left Downing Street for the last time as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007 Cherie told the gathered media present "I don't think we'll miss you". Days later however, she was the subject of a one-hour-long ITV special on her life, filmed with her full approval and co-operation.
[21]
Portrayals in popular culture
Cherie Blair features as a character in the highly acclaimed production ''
TONY! The Blair Musical'', originally performed at York Theatre Royal and at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007. In it, she is portrayed in a sympathetic light, and possibly as a more fragile character than her real life persona.
Trivia
John Wilkes Booth, the infamous professional stage actor who assassinated
Abraham Lincoln, is a distant relative of Cherie Blair.
[22]
References
1. "Profile: Cherie Blair", BBC, 19 June 2002
2. "Areas Of Practice", Matrix Chambers
3. "Purja and Ors v Ministry of Defence", British and Irish Legal Information Institute, 21 February 2003
4. "Cherie says 'sorry' for Foster dealings", BBC, 10 December 2002
5. "Ev'rybody must get stones", The Observer, 8 December 2002
6. ''How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World'', Francis Wheen, Harper Perennial 2004, ISBN 0-00-714097-5
7. "Cherie: That b
★
★
★
★ Princess Anne", Daily Mail, 21 April 2006
8. "Cherie under attack: from fur in flight to freebies", The Guardian, 9 February 2005.
9. "PM's wife 'sorry' in suicide bomb row", BBC News, 18 June 2002.
10. "Oh dear . . . What have I done now? Cherie's in trouble again", The Times, 26 October 2005.
11. " Now Labour MPs accuse Cherie Blair of 'cashing in'", The Telegraph, 5 June 2005.
12. "Charity in trouble over Blair tour", The Guardian, 26 October 2005
13. "Muslim girl wins battle to wear traditional dress in school", Times Online, 2 March 2005
14. High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, judgement of 6 september 2006, Orams v. Apostolides, [2006] WLR (D) 228. A French summary of the judgement of the Cypriot court (Eparchiako Dikastirio Lefkosias, case no. 9968/04, 19 April 2005, Apostolidis v. D. and L. Orams) is available in ''Reflets, Informations rapides sur les développements juridiques présentant un intérêt communautaire'', Nº 1/2006
15. "Cyprus angry over Cherie Blair's provocative action", People's Daily, 20 December 2005.
16. "Labour defends Cherie's hair bill", BBC News, Friday, 21 April 2006.
17. "White outfit, wrong occasion, Cherie", Telegraph, Monday, 29 May 2006.
18. "Labour Hutton auction criticised", BBC News, Tuesday, 23 May 2006
19. "Cherie 'cuffs' a cheeky boy", The Independent, Sunday, 17 September 2006
20. "Cherie: It's my human right to get perks", The Mail on Sunday, 21 January 2007
21. "Blair at Palace to resign as PM", BBC News, 27 June 2007
22. "The Lincoln-Blair Affair", GenealogyToday, 2002
External links
:''The following links were last verified
14 December 2006.
★
Matrix Chambers — Cherie Booth, QC
★
First Lady of Downing Street speech
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